The safe shipment of vehicles such as cars or light trucks from the manufacturing site to the distributor and ultimately to the customer has always provided a challenge. The mode of transportation for automobiles and light trucks in the past has been primarily by tractor-trailer or rail, or for imported cars from overseas, also by ship.
Traditionally, vehicles have been secured to the bed of a trailer, truck, train or ship using sets of chains. The chains are secured to the floor or bed of the transport vehicle and are attached to a portion of the frame of the transported vehicle. Specifically, a loop or hook of some type has traditionally been welded on some portion of the transported vehicle, so that the vehicle can be "tied down" by chains for transport. However, chains are typically metallic in nature, and can rust from exposure to the weather. Rusting can cause the chains to develop weak points and thereafter break, resulting in movement of the vehicles on the platform, which can damage the vehicles and create safety hazards. Particularly if vehicles are being transported by a truck, vehicles could fall off the trucks, injuring or killing occupants in other vehicles.
Securing vehicles through their frames also presents a problem in that the suspensions of the transported vehicles may permit the frames of the vehicles to dip during transport, e.g., due to bumps in the road. Dipping can temporarily introduce slack in the chains, which subjects the chains to greater forces as the chains "snap" back taut.
Another problem associated with the use of chains is the difficulty that the drivers or dock loaders have in securing the chains to the vehicles. In order to attach the chains to the vehicles, it is often necessary to get under the car or truck and attach the chain to the car or truck, which can be a difficult and a dirty job. Thus, a significant need has long existed for an easier and more reliable manner of attaching vehicles to platforms for transit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,849 to Kissel et al. (which is assigned to the same assignee as the present application, and which is incorporated by reference herein) discloses a vehicle restraint system in which flexible strapping material is used to directly secure one or more wheels of a vehicle to a support surface such as a floor or bed. An upper restraint is supported on an upper outer surface of a wheel, with a pair of inner flexible members and a pair of outer flexible members coupled to and extending from the upper restraint on inner and outer sides of the wheel, respectively. The ends of the flexible members are secured to the support surface, with the outer flexible members crossing one another across the outwardly facing surface of the wheel. In addition, a pair of lower restraints are coupled between the inner and outer flexible members to engage the lower surface of the wheel, functioning much like "chocks" that resist rotation of the wheel.
The aforementioned vehicle restraint system has the advantages of being economical and light weight, and being capable of working on a wide variety of vehicle types, regardless of the surrounding mechanical components and body panels which surround the wheel wells of a vehicle. The vehicle restraint system also is simpler to install than chains, and forms a more reliable restraint that allows the suspension of the transported vehicle to float without the restrictions imposed by chains.
One drawback with such a vehicle restraint system, however, is that the upper restraint, which is typically formed of an H-shaped arrangement of flexible strapping material that slidably receives the inner and outer flexible members, has been found to work its way up and over the upper surface of the wheel and toward the back side thereof in some circumstances. Doing so can compromise the integrity of the restraint, and can also cause the restraint system to become entangled with vehicle workings near the back side of the wheel.
Furthermore, the arrangement of flexible strapping material in the restraint system can also be somewhat cumbersome to properly position over a wheel. As such, drivers or dock workers may need to expend excessive time and effort in installing the restraint system. Furthermore, added difficulty often increases the risk of improper installation, thus also increasing the risk that a restraint could fail.
Therefore, a significant need continues to exist in the art for an improved manner of securing vehicles to platforms for transit, and in particular for a manner of securing vehicles that is both reliable, and quick and simple to install.